Democratic Palestine : 23 (ص 11)
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- Democratic Palestine : 23 (ص 11)
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Highlights of Palestinian Struggle
1976 Hunger Strike in Ashkelon Jail
The United Nations has declared 1987 to be the Year of Palestine, and April 17th is the Day of Solidarity
with Palestinian Prisoners. We mark these two occasions with an article on the 1976 hunger strike in
Ashkelon jail in occupied Palestine.
Zakaria Tatari
Abdel Aziz Minawi
It is of great importance to remember the past struggles of
the Palestinian people - their consistent, ongoing fight for
establishing a popular, democratic state in Palestine. Palesti-
nian revolutionaries imprisoned in Zionist jails have con-
stituted a primary force in our masses’ struggle at all stages.
They have accumulated a rich militant experience and set a
shining example for our masses of the possibilities for stead-
fastness and resistance, even under the worst of conditions.
The following account of the Ashkelon strike was contributed
to Democratic Palestine by two former political prisoners,
comrades Zakaria Tatari and Abdel Aziz Minawi, who were
among the 1,150 Palestinian revolutionaries liberated from the
Zionist jails in 1985, in exchange for two Israeli soldiers cap-
tured by PFLP-General Command.
PRELUDE TO THE STRIKE
Before talking about the historical strike in Ashkelon, it is
essential to review the development and conditions of the
prisoners’ movement in the Zionist jails at its different stages.
Both objective and _ subjective factors determined the
development of the prisoners’ movement.
The objective factors can be divided into two: First was the
physical and psychological oppression enacted against the
prisoners’ movement and organizations inside the Zionist jails,
in order to eliminate the Palestinian national identity and
armed struggle. Second was depriving the Palestinian prisoners
of the least humanitarian rights to which political prisoners all
over the world are entitled, and which are clearly outlined in
UN documents. Among the subjective factors were the level of
coordination between the various resistance organizations in-
side the prison, and the consolidation of the alliance among
these organizations in the prisons and among the Palestinian
masses at large.
On this background, we can understand that there were
many reasons which led the imprisoned militants to think of
conducting such a strike as occurred in Ashkelon, raising the
slogan of «Yes to hunger, no to subjugation.» The strike was
an effort to counteract a number of negative factors and
tendencies among the prisoners themselves, while at the same
time pressuring the Zionist prison authorities for improvement
in the conditions of detention. Among the factors which the
strike aimed to correct were: First, the deterioration of the
conditions of the prisoners’ movement and its organizational
dispersion and division. Second were the attempts of the prison
admjnistration to spread despair arnong the prisoners and
erode their morale. Third was the emergence of opportunist
trends, rightist and leftist, among the prisoners, along with the
religious trend (the Muslim Brotherhood) and the so-called
democratic trend which presented itself as a substitute for all
the Palestinian resistance organizations. Fourth was the spread
of ‘tribalism’ whereby people were classified by their origins
(Gaza, West Bank, etc..), and prisoners banded together on the
basis of their place of origin, acting according to the idea of
‘the survival of the fittest’. Fifth was the bad living conditions
suffered by the Palestinian prisoners, which impacted on their
morale, leading. prisoners to think about. their own situation
and sentence, while neglecting their people’s cause.
A sixth factor was the prison administration’s policy of
discriminating between the prisoners, showing preference for
those who worked in the prison (almost 2/3 of the inmates) in
such jobs as tailoring, building, etc. Those who worked were
granted a number of privileges: an extra 30 minutes of lighting
in their cells, an extra half hour break, and a 10-15 minute ex-
tension of the monthly family visit. They were allowed to meet
their families in a room, rather than separated from them by a
screen.
A seventh factor was the spread of disease among the
prisoners, heart, skin, stomach and other diseases which
demanded immediate medical treatment or surgery which was
denied. This had resulted in the death of several militants:
Abdel Qader Abu Al Faham, Omar Awad Allah Yousef,
Yousef Karim and Fuad Salamah.
Eighth was that books, newspapers and studies were pro-
hibited. Ninth was the distinction made between Jewish
criminal prisoners and security (i.e.Palestinian) prisoners,
whereby the former gained more rights than the latter, if the
latter had any rights at all. Tenth was that the cells were grossly
overcrowded with more than 40 people squeezed into a room
suitable for less than 10.
All these factors and problems accumulated, motivating
some of the organizations’ leaders inside the prison to think
about conducting a strike that would be much more effective
than previous forms of protest. The hunger strike is considered
the highest form of prison struggle to be used especially when
all other methods are exhausted in the struggle against the
oppressive conditions. Previous forms of protest had included
meeting with the prison administration to convey the prisoners’
demands, refusing a meal, refusing to go out of the cells during
the daily break and refusing to meet with visiting families. The
prison administration had responded to all such actions by ig- >
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